Podcast: Red Hook series champ Raphaële Lemieux and Vancouver’s Spikes on Bikes

Montreal's star fixie racer looks back at her season. Writer Tom Babin speaks about the harm-reduction program in the Downtown Eastside that’s working to help those suffering amidst the opioid crisis

Canadian Cycling Magazine December 6, 2018

Raphaële Lemieux, who retired from speed skating and road riding roughly 11 years ago, picked up racing fixed-gear bikes a few years ago. She’s been doing pretty well at that discipline. This year, she won the Red Hook Crit in Brooklyn and the Red Hook series overall. She discusses the fun of racing fixed, the speed-skating skills that transfer over to her cycling endeavours and what it’s like balancing a 40-hour workweek and racing at a high level.

In this episode’s Full Send/No Send segment, Dan Walker and Matthew Pioro wrestle with UCI regulations about sock height, holiday cycling challenges and clothing made specifically for indoor cycling. (Find out who tries to get away with a shrug on a podcast.) They give a final big full send to Paul Sherwen, who recently passed.

Finally, writer Tom Babin talks Spikes on Bikes. In the most recent issue of Canadian Cycling Magazine, Babin has a feature about the harm-reduction program based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The program comprises “peers” who head out into the neighbourhood on bikes. They do everything from saving people from overdosing to offering advice on getting off the streets. Often, the peers themselves have experience with addiction and homelessness. It’s a story of hope and community building amid the opioid crisis.

Rate us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts. Send in your ideas for Full Send/No Send to podcast@cyclingmagazine.ca

Artwork by Maxine Gravina

The Canadian Cycling Magazine Podcast thanks the Ontario Media Development Corp. for its support.